Electrical and pneumatic systems for industrial and aeronautical control are well known in the art. Recently, however, optical systems have received increasing attention as possible alternatives to such electrical and pneumatic control systems. In industrial applications, optical controls tend to be inherently safer, immune to electromagnetic noise and lower in cost than corresponding electrical systems. Also, optical fibers weigh less, are more compact and provide a larger signal bandwidth than pneumatic or electrical control lines. The benefits offered by optical control systems are particularly noteworthy in aeronautical applications. In military aircraft, for example, optical controls are more survivable in the presence of electromagnetic interference, electromagnetic pulses, electrostatic interference and high-energy particles than functionally similar electrical systems.
While optical control system components such as optical power sources, glass fiber signal transmission lines and optical connectors are currently available for control system applications, hardware for converting optical input signals to fluid mechanical output signals, as would be necessary for the optical control of such apparatus as hydraulic motors and the like, have yet to be developed.